HIV/AIDS knowledge differentials by Geopolitical, Social and Economic Status: Evidence from Surveyed Children in South East Asia

Diskussionspapier, Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung, Universität
St. Gallen#### The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a major public health
threat, with evidence showing that information campaigns are
effective policy tools to control its evolution. Many of these are
designed to increase children's knowledge on HIV before they become
sexually active or start to experiment with intravenous drugs, with
the effectiveness of such campaigns subject to the extend to which
they reach all sectors in the population. This paper applies
matching methods and techniques for programme evaluation to detect
differentials in children's knowledge on HIV/AIDS by geopolitical,
social and economic status, allowing for health risk-taking
behaviour. Drawing from a sample of surveyed children in South East
Asia and the Pacific, the results show support for Amartya Sen's
(2002) suggested negative effect of non-democracies on HIV/AIDS
awareness, although children in democracies with low development
and/or low HIV-prevalence seem to be less well equipped to deal with
the epidemic. Within-country results suggest that gender, schooling
status and living in a urban setting are determinants of knowledge
differentials, while parental income or occupation are not. This
study has policy implications with respect to what sectors in the
population should information campaigns target. Download Discussion
Paper: (pdf, 500kb)